Revolutionary energy transition needed

With the world's largest population and the second-largest, and still-growing economy, China's energy development roadmap is a global concern. China accounts for almost half the world's annual coal consumption, so an energy development roadmap that reduces China's coal consumption is critical to keeping the average global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius, as enshrined in the Copenhagen Accord.

Yet the conventional wisdom in China is coal is indispensable. Mainstream energy experts tend to use "rich in coal, short in oil and gas" to depict China's resource landscape and argue that China can only rely on coal for its energy.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. The rich in coal, short in oil and gas narrative was developed half a century ago, when renewable energy choices were limited and fossil fuels were the primary options to support large-scale industrialization and urbanization. In addition, it was never expected back then that China's total energy consumption would soar so fast, and that it would suffer so much as a result of burning fossil fuels.